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Who will defend the defenders? Human rights lawyering amidst impunity

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by Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General, IAPL President, IADL Bureau Member

In our practice court in law school our professor would advice us: if you are strong on the law – pound on the law; if your are strong on the facts – pound on the facts; but if you are weak both on the facts and the law – pound on the table!

But in the Philippines, the security forces dont pound on the law; they dont pound on the facts; they dont pound on the table they pound on the lawyers, especially human rights lawyers.

Human rights lawyers have committed to help promote and protect the rights of the people, particularly the oppressed and marginalized, from the abuses of the few who belong to the dominant elite of our society. But, the spate of impunity is so brazen that even human rights advocates, both lawyers and non-lawyers alike, are not spared from the repressive apparatus of state forces.

This is coupled with the failure of the judicial and the legislative branches of the government to counteract the coercive undertakings of the executive branch and its security forces without respect to the rights of defenseless civilians and the so called rule of law. With this set-up, any semblance of order and faith that remains in the legal processes crumbles, making things worse as perpetrators are left free from any accountability.

The inadequacy, ineffectivity and failure of existing legal remedies to obliterate the climate of impunity is apparent in the cases of human rights defender Eden Marcellana, peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy and journalist activist Beng Hernandez which, despite United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (HRC) resolutions finding the Philippine government guilty of human rights abuses, has been left unsolved as the perpetrators remain free from any accountability.

In this light, in the case of Razon vs. Tagitis[1], the Supreme Court itself recognized that it is an extremely difficult condition for the disappeared (and of those extrajudicially killed) victims families to get justice because it is the State itself, the party whose involvement is alleged, which investigates the incidents of enforced disappearances. Past experiences in other jurisdictions show that evidentiary difficulties are generally three-fold.

First, there may be a deliberate concealment of the identities of the direct perpetrators. Experts note that abductors are well organized, armed and usually members of the military or police forces. Second, deliberate concealment of pertinent evidence of the disappearance is a distinct possibility. Third is the element of denial; in many cases, the state authorities deliberately deny that the enforced disappearance ever occurred.[2]

Victimizing Human Rights Lawyers

Since 2001, state forces have been waging a systematic and conscious attack on activists, farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, journalists, human rights advocates, and even church people and peoples lawyers.

As the strategy of the counterinsurgency efforts of the government, Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Plan Freedom Watch) has been linked with extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and harassments as it does not distinguish between rebels and civilians, and underground and legal organizations, such vio9lations as well as the filing of false charges have been carried out with odious brazenness and cruelty.

These patterns of human rights violations continue even with the promises of the new administration to end government abuses and excesses which PNoy calls utak wangwang. 48 cases of extrajudicial killings have already been documented in the first year of the Aquino administration alone.

Out of the hundreds of civilians that were extrajudicially killed since January 2001, 27 were lawyers, 8 of whom were involved in human rights issues. The human rights lawyers who were killed were:

Atty. Juvy Magsino of Mindoro, counsel for militant groups and local official who was vocal against military abuses and mining projects affecting the people. She was riddled with bullets while driving her car.

Atty. Teresita Vidamo of the Public Attorneys Office of Las Pinas, Metro Manila. She was handling controversial land and labor disputes at the time she was shot.

Atty. Arbet Yongco of Cebu, private prosecutor in a parricide case against a cult leader belonging to a powerful family. She was shot inside her house.

Atty. Felidito Dacut of Leyte, counsel for unions and peoples organizations. He was shot by armed men riding in a motorcycle while inside a passenger jeepney on his way to buy milk for his 3-year old daughter. He was then handling cases involving human rights and labor disputes.

Atty. Norman Bocar of Samar. He was counsel for militant organizations and partylist groups when he was shot.

Atty. Gil Gojol, Former local public official, former bar president, professor and legal counsel of progressive party-list groups and peoples organizations.

Attys. Cynthia Oquendo and Concepcion Brizuela of Mindanao. They were part of those massacred by the powerful Ampatuan family closely affiliated with the former administration.

Atty. Brizuela, an officer of the Union of Peoples in Mindanao (UPLM) and founding member of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL), was interviewed by a foreign mission of judges and lawyers regarding the threat on her life a year before she was killed.

During the same period, 42 other lawyers who were involved in human rights issues and cases were subjected to different forms of attacks. Human rights lawyers and their families received death threats and are subjected to constant or periodical surveillance. Some of them are harassed, intimidated, red-tagged and have their offices ransacked by unidentified armed men.

These unresolved killings and continuing attacks on lawyers and judges is an attack on the legal profession, a travesty of due process, the rule of law and the system of justice. As these incidents are the function of the counterinsurgency program of the government, it is not surprising that a considerable number of victimized lawyers are either counsels of entities conveniently labeled as enemies of the state or are themselves labelled as such.

It is very ironic that the rights of the human rights defenders are violated. Indeed, it is the height of impunity when human rights advocates themselves become the hapless victims of the climate of impunity.

This manifests that there is a deliberate and methodical effort to thwart attempts to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. This requires no less than a reciprocally deliberate and methodical effort to defend the defenders themselves from human rights abuses through a strong mass movement, a broad network of support and campaign, and international solidarity and vigilance.

With the continuing incidents of killings ,forcible disappearance, torture and arbitrary arrests and with the perpetrators still able to evade punishment to this day, there is an obvious lack of correct pro-people political will or sincerity on the part of the Aquino administration to eradicate the climate of impunity that has long prevailed and which continues to persecute mostly those from the marginalized sectors or those who stand by them.

The struggle to change this impunity that has been engendered remains a challenge to those of us in the legal profession and, of course, all other human rights defenders. The perils in our line of work and commitment as human rights lawyers which we continuously face day in and day out will not discourage us, much less demoralize our ranks, and from standing by the rights and interests of the poor and the oppressed in our society and struggling, in and outside of the courtrooms, for the causes that we believe in.

As one of our peoples lawyers has said: It does not matter how long you have lived, what is important is what you have done to serve the people and the county.[3] Indeed, it has been said that only those who choose to fight with the dangers of the battlefield and sacrificed the comfort of the fence live beyond irrelevance.[4]

Finally, as NUPL Chairperson Emeritus Romeo Capulong said, We have brave clients. They deserve brave lawyers.
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[1] GR No. 182498, February 16, 2010
[2] Razon vs. Tagitis, GR No. 182498, February 16, 2010
[3] Atty. Kathrina Castillo, NUPL National Auditor, A Young and Fearless Peoples Lawyer, Attacks on Lawyers: Human Rights Defenders Under Siege, NUPL, 2011.
[4] Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Message to the NUPL Founding Congress, September 15, 2007.

National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)
3F Erythrina Building,
Maaralin corner Matatag Sts.
Central District, Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.No.920-6660,Telefax No. 927- 2812
Email addresses: nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
Visit the NUPL at http://www.nupl.net/

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By calling yourselves the ‘people’s lawyer,’ you have made a remarkable choice. You decided not to remain in the sidelines. Where human rights are assaulted, you have chosen to sacrifice the comfort of the fence for the dangers of the battlefield. But only those who choose to fight on the battlefield live beyond irrelevance.” Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, in his message to the NUPL Founding Congress,Sept. 15, 2007.

Artists, supporters to DOJ: Review case of detained artist Acosta, NCCA Exec. Dir. Malou Jacob joins support rally

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Supporters of the Free Ericson Acosta Campaign (FEAC) trooped to the Department of Justice (DOJ) today to call on the agency to act promptly on the Petition for Review filed by the lawyers of detained artist and activist Ericson Acosta.

Acosta’s counsel, led by Attys. Edre Olalia, Julian Oliva, Jr. and Ephraim Cortez of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers
(NUPL), filed a Petition for Review (please see attached) of the illegal possession of explosive case lodged against Acosta, before the DOJ today.

Acosta has been in detention for more than six months now without a proper court case filed against him. In a recent
statement, the Amnesty International has called on Philippine authorities to “end to Acosta’s detention without trial.”

Acosta was arrested without warrant by the military in San Jorge, Samar last February 13. He is currently detained at the
Calbayog sub-provincial jail.

The petition came after Acosta’s Motion for Reconsideration (MR) filed June 21 was denied by the local prosecutor in a July 12 Resolution. The NUPL received a copy of the said Resolution only last August 17. Acosta’s MR was denied as “(t)he defenses raised need to be threshed out in a full blown trial,” according to the resolution.

“The investigating prosecutor seriously erred in recommending that an information for illegal possession of explosive be filed against (Acosta) in court,” read the NUPL’s petition. The petition prayed that DOJ. Sec. Leila de Lima set aside resolutions by Investigating Prosecutor Agustin M. Avalon dated April 20 and July 12, and issue a new resolution dismissing the complaint against Acosta.

It stated several irregularities and human rights violations in Acosta’s arrest and detention, namely, 1) that Acosta was
arrested without warrant while not committing any crime or doing anything illegal; 2) he was not informed of the reason for his arrest at the time of his arrest; 3) he was denied the right to counsel; 4) he was denied a phone call and prevented from contacting his family or his lawyer; 5) he was subjected to prolonged interrogation for 44 hours; 6) he was physically and psychologically tortured during tactical interrogation; 7)he was deprived of sleep, threatened, intimidated, coerced and forced to admit membership in the NPA; 8)the grenade subject of the case was planted; 9) the complaint against him was filed in court only after 72 hours and 30 minutes; and, 10) he was detained in a military camp, which is not of civilian jurisdiction.

“(Avalon) resolved only two (2) of the ten (10) foregoing defenses of respondent in arriving at his conclusion… conceding that indeed there was violation of respondent’s constitutional, statutory and human rights by the military in his arrest and continued detention.”

“..the role of the Public Prosecutor is not mainly to prosecute but essentially to do justice to every man and to assist the court in dispensing justice,” the petition argued. It cited the Albay Accredited Constructors Asso. v. Desierto, 480 SCRA 520 case, to wit: “The ultimate purpose of preliminary investigation is to secure the innocent against hasty, malicious, and oppressive prosecutions, and to protect him from open and public accusation of crime, from the trouble, expenses and anxiety of a public trial, and also to protect the State from useless and expensive prosecutions.”

Artists and supporters led by Acosta’s family held a picket rally at the DOJ in light of the petition filing.

National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Exec. Dir. Malou Jacob graced the event. “It is the task of the NCCA to protect artists and their rights,” Jacob said.

Stage director and screenwriter Bonifacio Ilagan called on the DOJ to “assess the legality of Acosta’s arrest and detention and to investigate and punish perpetrators of rights violations.” Ilagan himself was a former political detainee during Martial Law and is now the secretary-general of Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA).

The FEAC also submitted to Sec. de Lima customized petition-postcards and statements in support of Acosta. Signatories to the postcard-petition include National Artists Bienvenido Lumbera and F. Sionil Jose, and members of Philippine Center of International PEN (Poets & Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists), among them board members Jun Cruz Reyes, Lito Zulueta, Elmer Ordonez, Ronald Baytan, Susan Lara and Wendell Capili. TV and stage director Soxie Topacio; dance performance artist Myra Beltran; playwright and NCCA Executive Director Malou Jacob; visual artists Karen Flores, Mideo Cruz, Leonilo Doloricon, and Boy Dominguez also signed the petition for the dropping of charges against Acosta. The FEAC has also gained international support from human rights advocates and artists groups in the USA, Canada and Europe. The FEAC, together with human rights groups KARAPATAN and SELDA, also called on the DOJ to investigate cases of other political prisoners. #

FREE ERICSON ACOSTA!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Reference: Atty. Jun Oliva, NUPL 09157707067
Please visit:
FEAC Facebook page
JAILHOUSE BLOG: Ericson Acosta’s Prison Diary
Free Ericson Acosta Campaign Blog

Release Remy Jade Manzon, Melanie Montanio and Januelle Rontos NOW!

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Kabataang Artista Para Sa Tunay Na Kalayaan (KARATULA) calls for the immediate release of Remy Jade Manzon, member of KARATULA UP Cebu, Melanie Montanio from the League of Filipino Students UP Cebu, and Januelle Rontos of Nagkakaisang Kusog ng mga Estudyante, a political party in UP Cebu. The three were illegally arrested and are currently detained in Philippine National Police Precincts in Toledo City and Pinamongajan.

They were arrested while the police violently dispersed a protest camp of peasants in  Sitio Camarin, Brgy Bonbon, Aloguinsan, Cebu.  According to reports, 300 elements of the PNP and SWAT roused the camp at 5:30 in the morning saying they have orders to arrest everyone in the camp. Together with the UP Cebu students, the police arrested other youth and peasants by 10 in the morning and brought to the custody of Toleda City Jail and Pinamongajan Municipal precinct.

The peasants were protesting against land grabbing of the Aboitizes who plan to turn the 168 HA of land into a shipyard and special economic zone. Manzon, Montanjo and Rontos were part of a group of 11 students who integrated with the peasants in support of their campaign.

KARATULA condemns this shameless violation of human rights and calls for the end of enduring repression and culture of impunity under Aquino’s regime as manifested by the growing number of cases of censorship, political prisoners and extrajudicial killings.  The current government and its police have clearly shown that its interest lie with the rich and foreign corporations for their greater profit while trampling on the human and socio-economic rights of peasants such as those from Sitio Camarin who have long defended and cultivated their land.

The Aquino government’s aggression will only further fuel the determination of the growing number of youth and people to defend and fight for their rights and interests for a government that fulfills the needs of the people and genuine land reform.

IMMEDIATELY RELEASE REMY JADE MANZON, MELANIE MONTANIO, AND JANUELLE RONTOS!
FIGHT FOR GENUINE LAND REFORM!
FIGHT THE FASCIST AND ANTI-PEOPLE AQUINO REGIME!

The Rice and Rights Network for Human Rights in the Philippines supports campaign against enforced disappearances

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Amsterdam, August 30, 2011 – – On the occasion of International Day of the Disappeared, the Rice and Rights Network for Human Rights in the Philippines affirmed its commitment to work for justice and human rights in the Philippines. The network expressed its continuing support the campaign of the Families of the Disappeared for Justice (Desaparecidos) to demand the release of those who have been abducted and are kept in secret detention places by agents of the Philippine military and police.

The term “desaparecidos” became widely used used in Argentina and other Latin American countries in the 1970s. Human rights researchers say around thirty countries, including the Philippines, still use abduction as a way to silence political opposition.

In the Philippines, cases of abductions of political activists committed under administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III show that human rights violations are committed with the same degree of impunity as during the time of his predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. There were 206 cases of abductions during the Arroyo administration. At least eight cases have been documented under the Aquino government.

Justice remains elusive to the victims of human rights violations. The number of cases of human rights violations continue to rise. None of the perpetrators have been punished. Despite strong evidence and credible eyewitness testimonies, cases have been dismissed. In some cases where the court has decided in favor of the victims, the military and police defied court orders to produce and release the victims.

“We urge the Filipino people to remain steadfast in the struggle for justice and human rights,” said Rice and Rights Network spokesperson Theo Droog, “We also call on the Dutch people and the rest of the international community to support this struggle.”

Even the prospect of the resumption of peace negotiations between the Aquino government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) seems dim as a result of the government panel’s refusal to honor previous documents and agreements forged by the two panels in the past.

“Some of the agreements were signed here in the Netherlands,” Droog added. “We urge Pres. Aquino to honor these commitments in order to pave the way towards the settlement of the root causes of the armed conflict.” The panels’ next agenda is to exchange drafts on social, economic and political reforms if the first ever signed joint agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP (the Hague Declaration of 1992) is to be honored.

Rice and Rights Network reiterates its call:

Surface the disappeared!
Release all political prisoners!
Justice to all victims of human rights violations!
Uphold human rights, freedom and democracy!

Contact:
Jun Saturay
riceandrights.nl@gmail.com
Tel. +31622127186

Open letter of the siblings of James Balao to President Aquino on the occassion of the International Day of the Disappeared.

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Dear Friends,

Below is a copy of the open letter of the siblings of James Balao to President Aquino on the occassion of the International Day of the Disappeared.

To date, the family, friends and colleagues of James Balao continue to search for him.  On September 17, 2011, it will be three years since he became a victim of enforced disappearance.

Since June 12, we have been sending President Aquino postcards appealing for the surfacing of James.  We encourage you to be with us in persisting for the Surfacing of James Balao and other victims of enforced disappearance.

Sincerely,

Audrey Beltran
Cordillera Human Rights Alliance

August 30, 2011
President Benigno Aquino III
Malacanang Palace
JP Laurel Street
San Miguel, Manila

Dear President Aquino,

It has been 1078 days since James Balao was enforcedly disappeared. James is our brother. He is an indigenous people’s rights activist who was a founding member of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and president of the Oclupan Clan Association. He was abducted by State security forces on September 17, 2008 in Tomay, La Trinidad, in front of a school and church and a few meters away from Camp Bado Dangwa, the Regional Headquarters of the Philippine National Police.  Since that day, we have been searching for him.

Last June 12, our family, clan, colleagues, and different Human Rights Groups from here and abroad sent to you postcards appealing for the surfacing of my brother. We hope that you read them and have initiated plans to bring back James to us.

We have done everything to look for him. We didn’t leave a stone unturned yet our brother remains missing. Sir, there must be an end to impunity. Our whole family voted for you in hope that you can and will help in the surfacing of James. Words cannot describe the anguish and pain that we went through in our search for him and in our search for justice. Our parents passed away last year without seeing James.

We still believe that the State security forces, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are the ones behind his abduction because of Oplan Bantay Laya. Recent updates from the Jonas Burgos case and the case of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno validate this claim. As Commander-in-Chief of the AFP, we are demanding you to take measure and see to it that our loved ones are brought back to us and that perpetrators of these violations are brought before the bar of justice.

Since July last year, there have been eight victims of enforced disappearances.  We condemn all of these and we ask you, President Aquino why has enforced disappearance persisted in your term?

No family deserves to experience what we went through and are still going through in our search for James.  Enforced Disappearances and other human rights violations have no place in a democratic society.

Sincerely,

(Sgd.)
Joni Balao-Strugar,
Mignonette Balao
Winston Balao

cordillera human rights alliance
55 ferguson road,baguio city, philippines
telefax: +63. 74. 443. 7159
telephone:  +63 74 304 4239
cp:  +63 918 919 9007
email: chra.karapatan@gmail.com